'Yorkvillism' a concept
March 11, 2011
Gale Beeby
REAL ESTATE EDITOR
The phone call was a surprise.
Would I be willing, the representive from Lifetime
Developments asked, along with another member of the Toronto Star’s
editorial team, like to become involved in a co-op program with Ryerson University’s School of Image Arts, Montana Steele Advertising
and Lifetime, where students would submit their portfolios for a chance to be
the lead photographer in a marketing campaign for the Yorkville Condominiums?
The challenge for the students would be to create images that represent life
in Yorkville, including day and night life, culture, history and landmarks.
An honour indeed, and a great chance for me, who loves the photo arts, to
see some great work created by young minds. I asked the Star’s deputy
art director and avid photographer, Spencer Wynn, to join me in the two days of
judging. The other panel members were Brian Brown, vice president of Lifetime
Developments, Robert Burley, associate professor at Ryerson’s School of Image Arts,
and Andy DeSantis, vice president and creative director at Montana Steele.
“Judging this group of young, emerging photographers was a treat! It was
exciting to see the high level of skill, visual maturity and creativity from
students coming out of Ryerson,” Wynn says. “I will watch for their work
appearing around the city in the years to come.”
The prize for the winner: The centrepiece picture, or “hero” shot, for the
advertising campaign and a chance to participate in a full-day shoot in the
Yorkville neighbourhood with a large range of equipment, a support crew and a
professional model, with Montana Steele working as art director.
We weren’t disappointed in the quality of the work presented by the initial
dozen applicants. In fact, we had such a hard time deciding on the final five,
we grew the number of finalists to six. They were Ériver Hijano, Arthur Mola, Renée Munn, Andrew B. Myers, Eugen Sakhnenko and Andrew Williamson.
The work of all six finalists will also be included in a photo book, Yorkvillism,
and their artwork will hang in the Yorkville Condominiums’ presentation centre,
and ultimately, the common areas of the building after it is complete.
The Yorkville Condominiums, to be built at the corner of McMurrich St. and Davenport Rd., will be a 31-story tower
with six two-storey townhouse residences with a total of 234 suites, designed
by Rudy Wallman of award-winning Wallman Architects. Interiors will be designed
by Melandro Quilatan and Tania Richardson of Tomas Pierce Interiors.
Sizes will range from 383 square feet to 1,965 square feet, priced from the
low $300,000s to over $1.5 million. Townhomes, which will front onto McMurrich St., will
range from 885 to 1,455 square feet.
The students took the challenge to capture “Yorkvillism” and turned in
photos that brought new perspective to an established neighbourhood.
The panel chose Arthur Mola as the winner and he spent a day photographing
his “concept” for the hero shot.
Mola is a fourth-year student and has already established a reputation for
himself as an entertainment photographer, with photos published in Rolling
Stone, Time and Variety, as well as Maclean’s, Elle
Canada and Flare. His photos of Roger Walters and AC/DC hang in the
hallways of the Rogers Centre.
He was one of the house photographer for Fashion Week
in 2007 and also for the Toronto International Film Festival and the MuchMusic
Awards, and is a contributing entertainment photographer for Getty Images, one of
the largest photo agencies in the world.
And all this by the age of 20.
“This opportunity interested me because it was a chance to continue working
creatively with industry professionals in a new way,” Mola says. “It really
excited me to imagine my photos being displayed inside a condo in Yorkville,
which has been one of my favourite areas in Toronto since I was a kid.
“Also, having the chance of one of my photos being chosen as the leading
image for an advertising and marketing campaign, as well as being compiled in
an art book and published in the Star, were all incredible things to
look forward to,” he says.
Second
and third place were named Thursday at the unveiling of the sales office.
Andrew Myers, a recent graduate, was given an honourable mention, and Andrew
Williamson, 22, a fourth-year student, was runner-up.
Lifetime Developments called on city councillor Kyle Rae (Toronto
Centre-Rosedale) to contribute the foreword to the book and he writes about the
neighbourhood in historic terms.
“There are so many different memories and perspectives that people conjure
up when thinking about this delightful neighbourhood: its village roots, its
‘60s youth and music scene, its cafés and restaurants, its high-end and niche
shops, its unrivaled fabulous opportunities to people-watch, and its superb
shopping experience on the newly transformed Bloor St.”
Ériver Hijano
Graduating in the spring of 2010, Ériver Hijano’s work has been published and
exhibited in the America’s, Europe and the United Kingdom. Hijano’s photographs
are based upon internal, emotional states panning between different, often
classic styles of imagery. His personal work treats the photograph as an empty
stage meticulously constructed by the artist, leaving no room for chance or
accident. In this way, his photographs are uniquely personal, and unavoidably
embedded with a characteristic aesthetic aura, that appeals to the viewer
independently of its contents. More at www.eriverhijano.com
Arthur Mola
In his fourth year at Ryerson and only 20 years old, Arthur Mola has already
photographed many of the world’s most iconic musicians and actors. The
challenge of capturing motion and action as it happens in the worlds of music
and entertainment is his signature. His work has been published in many of the
world’s largest publications including Rolling Stone and Time, Variety,
GQ, and the Toronto Star. Already a veteran photographer of
Toronto Fashion Week and TIFF, Arthur is also a contributing entertainment
photographer for Getty Images, one of the largest photo agencies in the world.
More at www.arthurmola.com
Renée Munn
Originally from Australia and a recent graduate of Ryerson’s School of Image
Arts, Munn’s work is a mixed media, combining historical photographic process,
fashion, sculpture and theatre. Her recent body of work included an examination
and reinterpretation of the death scenes from Hamlet, with photographic
illustrations presented as a large scale collage, composed from multiple large
format negatives printed on Gelatin silver paper, which are ripped and seamed
together and encapsulated in wax. The presentation of her artwork embodies an
expressive use of the photographic medium, with the drapery of fabric and the
gesture of the human figure all designed to create art as an experience.
Andrew B. Myers
A recent graduate of Ryerson University, Andrew B. Myers was named one of
Canada’s 35 emerging photographers of 2010 as part of Flash Forward and tours
internationally. His impressive portfolio already includes published work in Canadian
Geographic magazine, The Globe and Mail, Report on Business
and Air Canada’s en Route magazine. Andrew is also the protégé at
Westside Studio, one of Canada’s most elite rosters of advertising
photographers. More at www.andrewbmyers.com
Eugen Sakhnenko
Graduating from Ryerson in 2010, Eugen Sakhnenko’s work has an urban focus,
a product of his experience living in cities such as Kiev, New York and
Toronto. His images are highly technical and conceptually driven, photographing
people and the spaces they create. The results are consistently captivating, as
confrontational as they are revealing, but all rich in meaning and story
telling that goes far beyond their initial beauty. Sakhnenko’s photographs
often explore urban thematics of access, technology and contemporary culture,
and have been published and exhibited internationally. More at www.eugensakhnenko.com
Andrew Williamson
In his graduate year, Andrew Williamson’s work is a product of his urban
culture and habitat. He often explores technology, cities and the people who
make up their fabric. Williamson blends many forms of technology in the
creation of his work, often using sound and video as an addendum to his
photographic expertise, to investigate the urban, and human, experience. A
recent example being his work on people and traffic flow through Dundas Square
to create synthesized music in real time. More at www.andrewwilliamson.ca
For more information, go to www.theyorkville.com.
Gale Beeby can be reached at gbeeby@thestar.ca
or follow her on Twitter @galebeeby.